1 Do not let your heart be distressed; as you have faith in God, have faith in me. 2 There are many dwelling-places in my Father’s house; otherwise, should I have said to you, I am going away to prepare a home for you?[1] 3 And though I do go away, to prepare you a home, I am coming back; and then I will take you to myself, so that you too may be where I am. 4 And now you know where it is I am going; and you know the way there. 5 Thomas said to him, But, Lord, we do not know where thou art going; how are we to know the way there? 6 Jesus said to him, I am the way; I am truth and life; nobody can come to the Father, except through me. 7 If you had learned to recognize me, you would have learned to recognize my Father too. From now onwards you are to recognize him; you have seen him. 8 At this, Philip said to him, Lord, let us see the Father; that is all we ask. 9 What, Philip, Jesus said to him, here am I, who have been all this while in your company; hast thou not learned to recognize me yet? Whoever has seen me, has seen the Father; what dost thou mean by saying, Let us see the Father? 10 Do you not believe[2] that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me? The words I speak to you are not my own words; and the Father, who dwells continually in me, achieves in me his own acts of power. 11 If you cannot trust my word, when I tell you that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me, 12 let these powerful acts themselves be my warrant. Believe me when I tell you this; the man who has learned to believe in me will be able to do what I do; nay, he will be able to do greater things yet. 13 It is to my Father I am going: and whatever request you make of the Father[3] in my name, I will grant, so that through the Son the Father may be glorified; 14 every request you make of me in my own name, I myself will grant it to you.[4]

15 If you have any love for me, you must keep the commandments which I give you; 16 and then I will ask the Father, and he will give you another to befriend you, one who is to dwell continually with you for ever.[5] 17 It is the truth-giving Spirit, for whom the world can find no room, because it cannot see him, cannot recognize him. But you are to recognize him; he will be continually at your side, nay, he will be in you. 18 I will not leave you friendless; I am coming to you. 19 It is only a little while now, before the world is to see me no more; but you can see me, because I live on, and you too will have life. 20 When that day comes, you will learn for yourselves that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. 21 The man who loves me is the man who keeps the commandments he has from me; and he who loves me will win my Father’s love, and I too will love him, and will reveal myself to him. 22 Here Judas, not the Iscariot, said to him, Lord, how comes it that thou wilt only reveal thyself to us, and not to the world? 23 Jesus answered him, If a man has any love for me, he will be true to my word; and then he will win my Father’s love, and we will both come to him, and make our continual abode with him; 24 whereas the man who has no love for me, lets my sayings pass him by. And this word, which you have been hearing from me, comes not from me, but from my Father who sent me.

25 So much converse I have held with you, still at your side. 26 He who is to befriend you, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send on my account, will in his turn make everything plain, and recall to your minds everything I have said to you.

27 Peace is my bequest to you, and the peace which I will give you is mine to give; I do not give peace as the world gives it. Do not let your heart be distressed, or play the coward. 28 You have heard me say that I am going away and coming back to you. If you really loved me, you would be glad to hear that I am on my way to my Father; my Father has greater power than I. 29 I have told you of this before it happens, so that when it happens you may learn to believe. 30 I have no longer much time for converse with you; one is coming, who has power over the world, but no hold over me.[6] 31 No, but the world must be convinced that I love the Father, and act only as the Father has commanded me to act. Rise up, we must be going on our way.[7]

[1] ‘Should I have said to you’; cf. 12.27 above. Some commentators take the words as a statement, ‘I would have said to you’, which is difficult to reconcile with the verse which immediately follows; others would translate, ‘I would have told you, because’; but this is a doubtful rendering of the Greek, and seems wanting in relevance. Our Lord’s thought appears to be, ‘there are places waiting in heaven for others besides myself, as you may infer from my saying that I am going to prepare a home for you’.

[2] The Greek manuscripts here have ‘Dost thou not believe’.

[3] The words ‘of the Father’ are not found in the manuscripts.

[4] Some Greek manuscripts omit ‘of me’.

[5] ‘To befriend you’; the Greek word here used is ‘the Paraclete’, which means, properly, an advocate called in to defend one who is involved in an action at law. It is clear from Mt.10.20 that this office is fulfilled by the Holy Spirit; but the references in this and the following chapters suggest that the title indicates a more general manner of assistance.

[6] ‘One … who has power’; that is, the devil; cf. 12.31 above.

[7] Some think that after announcing his departure our Lord still lingered talking to the apostles; others, that they left the Cenacle at this point, and that the words recorded in the three chapters which follow were spoken on the way to Gethsemani.